Borderland: Sea Kayaking Croatia

Croatia is Borderland. The country lies on the geographic margin between central Europe and the Balkans, between the Adriatic and the Continent. Its very shape speaks of the divide. There is nothing compact, square or secure. Instead it curves around Bosnia and Herzegovina in a narrow arc, like a crescent moon or a boomerang. At no point is Croatia more than a few hundred miles wide; in most places it is much less.

Our goal was to kayak its length, through the 1,246 islands lying like marbles atop what astronauts claim is the bluest sea on the planet, the Adriatic. Of those, a spare 67 are inhabited and many are smaller than three acres. All told, the Croatian coast is home to one of the largest archipelagos in the Mediterranean and looks like a barer, wonderfully shattered, more sun-drenched Maine.

Joined by my two longtime running mates, photographer Peter McBride and videographer Alex Nicks, we kayaked more than 400 miles, from Zadar to Dubrovnik, barely touching the mainland during five weeks. Along the way we met a variety of fishermen many of whom complained that there are very few fish left in the Adriatic, swam with 600-pound tuna in pens at a fish farm off the island of Brac and feasted on mussels and oysters.

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